JONES
v.
GEORGIA

U.S. | 1967-10-16
No. 174
389 U.S. 24 Supreme Court of the United States (1967) Negative Treatment
Also reported at: 19 L. Ed. 2d 25 · 88 S. Ct. 4 · 1967 U.S. LEXIS 503 · SCDB 1967-006
Cited by 142 cases

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Synopsis

A Georgia murder conviction was reversed because the state failed to adequately explain a substantial disparity between the percentage of African Americans on the tax digest and those selected for grand and petit juries, as required under *Whitus v. Georgia*. The Supreme Court held that the Georgia Supreme Court's reliance on a presumption that jury commissioners had discharged their duties properly was insufficient to meet the state's burden of explaining the racial disparity in jury selection.

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Per_curiam
Per Curiam.

Per Curiam.

The motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis and the petition for a writ of certiorari are granted.

Petitioner appealed his conviction for murder to the Georgia Supreme Court where he sought reversal on the ground, among others, that the evidence relevant to his claim of systematic exclusion of Negroes from the grand and petit juries drawn in the county established a prima facie case of the denial of equal protection within our decision in Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U. S. 545.* The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the conviction stating that Whitus was distinguishable because “public officers are presumed to have discharged their sworn official duties. . . . Under the testimony in this case we can not assume that the jury commissioners did not eliminate prospective jurors on the basis of their competency to serve, rather than because of racial discrimination.” 223 Ga. 157, 162, 154 S. E. 2d 228, 232.

We hold that the burden upon the State to explain “the disparity between the percentage of Negroes on the tax digest and those on the venires,” Whitus, supra, at 552, was not met by the Georgia Supreme Court’s reliance on the stated presumptions. See Arnold v. North Carolina, 376 U. S. 773; Eubanks v. Louisiana, 356 U. S. 584; Williams v. Georgia, 349 U. S. 375; Avery v. Georgia, 345 U. S. 559; Cassell v. Texas, 339 U. S. 282; Norris v. Alabama, 294 U. S. 587. We therefore reverse the judgment of the Georgia Supreme Court and remand for further proceedings not inconsistent with our opinion.

It is so ordered.

*

The record supports the following comparison of the salient facts in Whitus and in petitioner’s case:

Over 21 population Whitus 42.6% Negro men Petitioner’s case 30.7% Negro

Jury Commissioners White (apparently) White

Source of juror names Tax Digests separated and identified as to race 3 Tax Digests, two of which separated and identified as to race

Taxpayers 27.1% Negro 19.7% Negro

Negro jurors 9.1% grand jury venire 7.8% petit jury venire 5.0% of jury list and box (1 Negro was on the grand jury which in-dieted petitioner)

Rebuttal evidence by State None None

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus

Citator

Cited By (38 total)

  • Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (U.S. 1986)
    …v. Louisiana, 405 U. S., at 632. The State cannot meet this burden on mere general assertions that its officials did not discriminate or that they properly performed their official duties. See Alexander v. Louisiana, supra, at 632; Jones v. Georgia, 389 U. S. 24, 25 (1967). Rather, the State must demonstrate that “permissible racially neutral selection criteria and procedures have produced the monochromatic result.” Alexander v. Louisiana, supra, at 632; see Washington v. Davis, supra, at 241.18 The show…
    1 / 2
  • Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482 (U.S. 1977)
    …. S. 463 (1947); Cassell v. Texas, 339 U. S. 282 (1950); Hernandez v. Texas, 347 U. S. 475 (1954); Eubanks v. Louisiana, 356 U. S. 584 (1958); Arnold v. North Carolina, 376 U. S. 773 (1964); Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U. S. 545 (1967); Jones v. Georgia, 389 U. S. 24 (1967); Sims v. Georgia, 389 U. S. 404 (1967); Turner v. Fouche, 396 U. S. 346 (1970). In Akins v. Texas, 325 U. S. 398 (1945), the statistical evidence involved only two grand jury panels; in Swain v. Alabama, 380 U. S. 202 (1965), the statistical…
    1 / 5
  • Tollett v. Henderson, 411 U.S. 258 (U.S. 1973)
    …might be raised on federal habeas after a plea of not guilty and trial by jury. That issue is left open by this opinion, as it was by Parker. Cf. Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U. S. 625 (1972); Sims v. Georgia, 389 U. S. 404 (1967); Jones v. Georgia, 389 U. S. 24 (1967); Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U. S. 545 (1967); Coleman v. Alabama, 377 U. S. 129 (1964); Arnold v. North Carolina, 376 U. S. 773 (1964); Eubanks v. Louisiana, 356 U. S. 584 (1958); Reece v. Georgia, 350 U. S. 85 (1955); Williams v. Georgia, 349 U.…

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